Learning to Spell

Excerpt: "Are we spelling as well in our schools today as our forefathers did in the little red schoolhouse? This is the question that has been asked many times but no one has been able to answer it in any convincing way. There have been advocates of both sides of the question. The fact remains that no one knows. We do not know how well children could spell fifty, or even twenty-five, years ago. As time goes by there is a glamour thrown over the past and we see only the high lights. We remember that in spelling a match there was a certain boy, or girl, who spelled down the entire school time after time, or possibly had a reputation for being the best speller in the entire county. When a spelling match was announced it was a foregone conclusion that the victory lay between two or three pupils. How many children of the eighth grade could spell the following list of words? phthisicky, ichthyology, abstemious, demoniacal, magisterial, convalesce, calligraphy, saccharin."